Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Thank you to everyone for
supporting the Twelve Days of Missing People episodes in December. So many of you
shared the episodes, commented on them and told me your opinion, so thanks
so much. Today we're going to be covering a case that I actually had
lined up for the Twelve Days of Missing People. However, when I started
researching it and getting into it, I realized that it was quite a big
case with a lot of twists and turns, and I wanted to do it
justice. As a main episode, we are going to be exploring the disappearance
of Stephen Clark from Saltburne in nineteen ninety two in North Yorkshire. His disappearance
was within such a short time frame and in such an odd place that his
family have no idea what has happened to him. I want to thank Rachel
for another case suggestion this week. This episode is about a missing person case
and so does not contain any graphic detail. However, there is some detail
about a road traffic accident involving a child, so listener discretion is advised.
Mask or Masked by the Sea is a village in the County of North Yorkshire,
located within the borough of red Carr in Cleveland. It's a coastal village
which has a variety of different amenities in housing. However, many of its
residents travel further afield to nearby towns like Middlesbrough for work, and so Mask
acts as more of a commuter town to these larger areas. It's generally a
quiet area, with many of the residents knowing one another and saying hello when
they see each other in the street. Mask is where Doris and Charles Clark
eventually settled down with their family. The couple, along with their two children,
Stephen and Victoria, had moved around quite a lot over the years.
They were originally from south Shield, South Tyneside. However, they had moved
around to several places with their children. While Stephen and Victoria were small,
they lived in Kirkliston in Scotland, and it was here, when Stephen was
around two and a half that a terrible accident occurred. Doris would later explain
that she'd popped out to the shop one day and that she hadn't realized that
Stephen had followed her out. When she got outside on the road, she
noticed that he was there, but by that point it was too late.
Stephen was involved with a horrific collision with an oncoming lorry and he was left
lifeless on the street. Fortunately, with medical attention, Stephen was able to
re cover. However, he was left with life changing injuries, which meant
that he walked with a limp and had little use of his left arm.
This of course changed the trajectory of Stephen's life, and Doris later said that
he wasn't the same little boy that he'd been before. This, of course,
was a traumatic and distressing moment for the Clark family, but they struggled
through it together. The family later moved to South Africa before returning back to
the UK in nineteen ninety and living in Surrey. It was in nineteen ninety
one that they decided to move to Mask. At this point when they moved,
both of their children were in their early twenties. Stephen was twenty two
and Victoria twenty one. Victoria didn't make the move to Mask, but she
would later describe her brother to the BBC, saying that he was an avid
Arsenal fan and had a love of music. He played the baritone euphonium and
he had a love of it and was a great swimmer. She stated.
He had a great sense of humor, an infectious laugh. You couldn't help
but laugh when being around him. It's clear that Stephen didn't let his disabilities
stop him from doing many of the things that he enjoyed, and he'd grown
up into a fairly resilient and determined young man who wanted to better his life
and get onto the career ladder. This was proving difficult for him though,
due to his disability, and it was something that his parents would later say
weighed on him quite heavily. He wanted to have a job and have his
own independent life, and this is why he attended training courses at the Rathbone
Society. Rathbones is a registered charity that seeks to help young people and adults
over the age of fourteen to get on to work based apprenticeships and traineeships.
They primarily work with people who need support to access training and overcome barriers to
employment. This was what Stephen was struggling with, and he embraced the challenge
of the training courses and enjoyed them In fact, he had been involved with
a training video for the charity and was given an award by Andrew Neil for
his success with the program and his determination to overcome the barriers he was facing.
He was named Apprentice of the Year. Stephen was clearly a shining example
of what could be achieved through the charity. However, he still struggled to
gain employment through the usual means. Stephen spent a lot of time with his
parents and sometimes socializing with people at the pub, going to football with his
dad Charles, and going on walks along the seafront with his mum Doris.
Going for a walk was exactly what Stephen and his mum Doris did on Monday,
the twenty eighth of December nineteen ninety two. That day, Charles states
that he had asked Stephen if he wanted to come to watch a Middlesbrough football
game with him, as this was something that they often did together. Charles
told him that he would have to pay for himself, though, and Stephen
reportedly was a little put out and said that he didn't want to go.
It was then that he agreed to go for a walk with his mum instead.
While his dad traveled to the match anyway. Doris later explained what happened
that day, saying she couldn't remember if the pair had set off together or
if Stephen had set off first and then she caught him up. But they
headed to the front with the plan to walk to saltburn Saltburne is a town
around two and a half miles away from Mask which can be reached by a
walk along the beach. Doris later said that this usually took around forty to
forty five minutes. When they reached Saltburne, Dorris states that Stephen went into
the gents public toilets that are located on the beach. She thought she may
as well also use the ladies toilets while she was there. She said that
she went in and then came back out, but Stephen hadn't come out yet.
While she was stood there, she said she noticed two men and a
little girl outside the toilets. She said that one man went into the toilet
while the other man stayed with the little girl, and then the other man
went in. While this was happening, Doris didn't see Stephen, and as
she stood there, she began to wonder if he'd already set off back home
without her. After a while, and without any sign of Stephen coming out
of the bathroom, she decided that this is what he must have done,
and she set off towards home as well. When Doris arrived back at the
house, however, Stephen wasn't there. This was strange, given that she'd
waited for him and he hadn't emerged from the toilets. Doris began to one
where exactly Stephen could have gone if he wasn't at home. When Charles got
home, he was told by Doris that Stephen hadn't arrived back and that he
was missing. Charles stated that he immediately went back out to Saltburn Beach and
the area around the toilets where Stephen had last been seen. He said he
began shouting for him and searching in any of the areas that he could have
been. Charles would later explain that due to the very bumpy terrain and slippery
sand dunes, he was worried about Stephen being able to navigate it. Due
to the difficulties that he had moving around, He said that he feared that
Stephen had fallen and was struck somewhere and didn't have the dexterity to get himself
out. He didn't find anything at all at the beach and couldn't locate Stephen.
He returned home, and Dorris and Charles decided to ring the police.
They later explained that the police told them that they would have to another twenty
four hours before they could report him missing, given that he had only just
disappeared. By this point, they hadn't seen Stephen for around four hours,
but it wasn't exactly like him to just disappear, and one thing they couldn't
understand is how he just disappeared from the public toilets like that. It was
a very small period of time that Stephen seemed to have just vanished. The
next day, he still hadn't returned, and Charles stated that he returned back
to the beach to try and find him. He had hoped that he would
find him there and that he had just decided to go somewhere by himself.
While this was unlike him, it was a possibility. When Charles still couldn't
find him, they officially reported Stephen missing. It wasn't clear where Stephen could
be or even why he hadn't returned to the family home There didn't seem to
be any obvious reason why he would have wanted to leave his life behind,
and Doris would later confirm that none of his belongings were missing. He hadn't
even left home with anything on him aside from the clothes that he had on.
He hadn't even taken his glasses, his wallet, or his watch with
him. There was no evidence that he had preplanned this disappearance or manufactured it
as a way to make a new life. Doris and Charles would later explain
that Stephen had been going through a bit of a hard time recently with his
job struggles and also one of his grandparents. Charles's mother had died not long
before, and this had hit Stephen hard as he was close to her.
Nothing else seemed to have changed that would make him depressed or change his outlooking
life. Doris would actually say that things seemed to be looking up for Stephen,
as he'd met a woman at the local pub the ship in around ten
days before he had disappeared. Charles stated this relationship with the girl lasted about
a week or ten days. He liked to go to the local pub she
was there. They were about the same age. They never met other than
in the pub it was days before he went missing. Doris also added he
saw her around him mask. I don't know how long they'd known each other.
They met in the ship in, but I've no idea how old she
was. For the Clerks, this information shows that Stephen was happy and actually
had some things to look forward to before his disappearance. For them, they
just couldn't understand it. Appeals were made in the local area, with posters
being put up and publicity in the local newspapers. Stephen's description, along with
what he was wearing, was distributed to the public. Stephen was six fought
three inches tall, with a medium build, blue eyes, and brown hair.
He was last seen wearing a maroon crew neck jumper, a navy blue
parker with fur hood, blue denim jeans, and gray trainers. It was
hoped that this description, along with the fact that Stephen was a tall man
and walked with a distinctive limp, would be enough to get information coming in
about his whereabouts. Dorris and Charles regularly spoke to the press about their son's
disappearance and also appealed for information. Charles would later say that the publicity surrounding
his disappearance was good and Stephen's case was featured on national television in nineteen ninety
three, as well as in news articles. This publicity did lead to many
possible sightings coming in to Cleveland police, and sifting through these sightings was a
time consuming process to discover which ones were credible. There were two sightings that
came in that stood out. These sightings came from people who knew Stephen personally
and were convinced that they had seen him. Mask and Saltburn are small communities
and so many people knew one another, and these sightings were more credible as
a result. The first of these sightings was on the thirtieth of December,
just two days after Stephen went missing. This sighting took place in red Car
Town Center, around six miles away from Saltburn, where he had last been
seen, and only four and a half miles from Mask. The sighting took
place on red Car High Street and was reported by a man named Stan Cammish.
Stan knew Stephen and his dad, Charles, from the pub, and
so when he spotted him in Red Car, he knew it was him.
Stan had met a woman in Red Car that day who he later recounted the
story of seeing Stephen two straight after it happened. This woman said that Stan
had met her and then went somewhere on the High Street for a couple of
minutes. When he returned, he asked her if she saw who he was
talking to, and when she said she didn't, he proceeded to describe Stephen
to her, whom she did know from the same pub. She said she
didn't really think anything of it until they realized that by that time Stephen was
officially a missing person. This sighting would seem to be quite credible and not
one of mistaken identity, given at Stan said that he had spoke with Stephen
that day. Cleveland police would later say, though, that Stan would change
this account in nineteen ninety nine, now saying that he only saw the man
from afar and that it looked like the way he walked, but he didn't
actually see his face. This was a distinct change from his initial statement.
The fact that Stan told his initials story on that same day, the thirtieth
of December, does seem to lend credibility to it. The other sighting that
came in was from the fourteenth of January, over two weeks after Stephen disappeared.
This sighting was reported by a woman who knew Stephen and lived on Balmorl
Gardens in Saltburn. She stated that on the fourteenth she'd noticed Stephen coming up
the steps from an area called Valley Gardens. That route came from the direction
of the beach where Stephen had last been seen. Interestingly, Stephen wasn't alone
that day. The woman stated that he was with a man aged between fifty
to sixty years old, was bald and gray hair, wearing a long gray
coat and glasses. Once again, this sighting appeared to carry more weight given
that this woman knew Stephen and was less likely to be mistaken. This begged
the question if it was Stephen, what had been doing and who was the
man that he was with. The not knowing and being in limbo was hell
for the Clark family, who continued to hope and appeal for answers as to
where Stephen was. They continually spoke to the press and tried to drum up
as much publicity as they could. They were successful in doing this, but
unfortunately information that was coming in did not locate Stephen or give any clues as
to where he could be. Weeks, months, and years began to pass
with little being found. Stephen's case was regularly included in Cleveland Police's cold case
reviews, but each time nothing new was discovered. In nineteen ninety nine,
a significant development occurred. A letter arrived at Gisboro Police Station, the police
station dealing with Stephen's case and around five miles from the family home. The
letter was addressed to the Stephen Clark Incident Room at Gisboro Police Station. Police
did not disclose the contents of the letter at the time, but there was
the implication that whatever was in it gave the police a tip to what may
have happened to Stephen. The author remained anonymous and police were at a loss
to try and trace them, but it seemed significant given that whoever it was
had felt the need to write it seven years after Stephen disappeared. Nothing more
seemed to have been done with it at the time, although police stated that
it was assessed by officers and the information recorded, it seemed that without any
new leads and without locating Stephen, police were at a loss. During these
reviews, police continued to look for any signs of Stephen living elsewhere or having
a new life, but unfortunately, no proof of life for him was found.
Stephen's bank account and savings account both had money in them at the time
that he went missing, but years later they remained untouched. This was a
concern for both the police and his family. His family continued to have hope
that Stephen would be found, and they decided to stay where they were in
their home in mask despite feeling like they wanted to move away. They knew
that Stephen knew their house and were reluctant to move away, hoping that one
day he would walk back through the door. Despite the time that had elapsed,
they made sure that they still tried to keep Stephen's case in the public
eye, speaking to the press and working with the Missing People charity. In
two thousand and ten, they spoke to the Gazette on the eighteenth anniversary of
Stephen's disappearance, discussing how difficult it had been for the nearly two decades that
he was missing. Charles said, everybody says how sad it's been eighteen years,
but it doesn't change how you feel. It's exactly the same as it
was when he first became a missing person. Doris added, he just literally
disappeared. We went for a walk together. He decided to nip into the
gents. I popped into the ladies and when I came out and waited for
quite a while to see if he was there or if he was coming out.
Nothing happened. He didn't appear, and we haven't seen him since they're
not knowing is such a common theme in missing person cases, and it's something
that must absolutely devastate a family. Another ten years would pass in Stephen's case,
and in two thousand and nineteen, a new cold case unit review began
into his disappearance. It was in twenty twenty, however, that police announced
that they were now treating Stephen's disappearance no longer as a missing person inquiry,
but a murder case, due to the fact that they could establish no proof
of life for him. While this was a significant development, what would come
next would be a bombshell. On the fourteenth of September twenty twenty, arrests
of what were described by Detective Chief Inspector Seawan Page as two suspects were made
in relation to murdering Stephen Clark. These two suspects would turn out to be
Charles and Doris Clark, Stephen's parents, who were now in their early eighties.
This was absolutely shocking to the local community and came as even more of
a shock to Charles and Doris. Doris later explained that a policewoman and three
planeclosed police officers turned up at their door around eight am while she was starting
breakfast and Charles was in the shower when they said that they were being arrested
for murdering Stephen. They couldn't believe it, and Charles said that he thought
it must be some sort of joke. He said he was very abrupt with
the officers and told them to go away and behave yourself. The police,
however, were not joking and took the pairing for interview. Doris would later
say that the first interview she was involved with, police were querying her story
of that day and their walk to the beach. She claims they told her
that it was just a story and that they didn't believe that they made the
walk at all, telling her that she was violent, controlling, and a
murderer. This came as such a shock to the parents that they couldn't believe
it. The police appeared to be now working on the theory that Doris's story
that she went for a walk with Stephen that day was false, and that
actually she and Charles had both been involved in killing him. The evidence that
the police had for this was initially unclear, and within four days of the
arrests, police were doing a full scale search of the Clark home, both
inside and digging up the rear garden looking for evidence. The search lasted for
five days, and Charles later said that they searched through everything in the house,
dug up the garden, and moved the shed to dig underneath. The
warrant for the search was obtained on the eighth of September, The arrest took
place on the fourteenth, and the searches took place on the eighteenth. This
all happened very quickly, and the searches were concluded after five days. The
clerks didn't understand what had happened after twenty eight years of treating Stephen's cases a
missing person investigation, and why they had suddenly become suspects. They were horrified
by the idea that Cleveland police believed that they had anything to do with Stephen's
death. After their arrests, Charles and Dorris agreed to be filmed for an
ITV documentary that followed them and what happened after the arrests. Mike Williams Thomas,
former police detective, became involved in the documentary and began to try to
get to the bottom of not only Stephen's disappearance but his parents arrest. Charles
and Dorris ran through the events of the day and what has happened since then
with Stephen's case. They denied having anything to do with Stephen's disappearance and especially
with its murder, and they couldn't understand what evidence the police had to arrest
them. Throughout the next seventeen weeks that the couple remained out on bail,
there were many significant developments. Just nine days after they were arrested, a
new witness came forward in the case. This witness was reportedly in mask on
the twenty eighth of December nineteen ninety two and saw Stephen walking towards the ship
in pub just up the road from his home. This was somewhere between three
and four pm. This witness didn't know Stephen, but when she found out
that he was missing after seeing an appeal at the time, she asked her
family, who were with her to confirm if it was Stephen that they saw.
They apparently confirmed this. She didn't come forward in nineteen ninety two,
though, as she wasn't sure if this was at all relevant to the investigation.
In twenty twenty, she decided to come forward with this information and Cleveland
police publicized it, asking people to come forward if they also had any information
related to this sighting. The fact that this sighting put Stephen close to home
during the time period after he had been seen at the toilets around three pm
suggested that he may have made his way home after all. Charles and Dorris
said that this proved their point, as they said they believed that he'd made
his way off the beach, and it proved that this happened at the time
that they said it did. The other way to look at this was that
Stephen was nearly home at that time and that something happened to put him in
harm's way after that point. This sighting was also filled with issues, given
that the witness came forward twenty eight years after his disappearance. Charles and Dorris
were asked if they had had any arguments with Stephen on the day that he
disappeared, and They continued to maintain that they didn't and that like any families,
they had their ups and downs, but nothing to explain his disappearance.
Fifty nine days after the couple's arrest, Cleveland police released some extracts from the
anonymous letter that had been received by police in nineteen ninety nine, over twenty
years earlier. Police were once again interested in trying to trace this letter writer
in case anyone now recognized the handwriting or the author could come forward to identify
themselves. This suggested that the letter was an important part of the investoration.
This worked, as around three weeks later, another significant development was made.
The author of the letter did indeed come forward. Police would later reveal some
information about the author and the letter. It would turn out that the contents
of the letter did implicate Stephen's parents, Doris and Charles, but that the
letter writer was a woman who had no connection at all to the family.
She reportedly told police that she wrote the letter in good faith, but that
she didn't know them personally. This is evident when you see the spelling used
of Stephen's name, with a P h used in the middle rather than a
V. This is obviously not someone who knew him personally. This completely throughout
the validity of the letter, given that this information was not based on any
evidence of a crime. Stephen's parents had been released on bail, but around
eighty days later police told them that they were now not under investigation at all.
It would turn out that Cleveland police had given the evidence they had to
the Crown Prosecution Service and they had established that they didn't have enough evidence to
make a case. The police would later tell Mike Williams Thomas in the documentary
that there was no new evidence that precipitated the arrest, but that it was
a combination of previous evidence that they had collected that needed to be tested in
an investigation. Cleveland police said that Charles and Dorris's account had changed over time,
however they deny this. Police also said that they couldn't confirm that Charles
had been at football that day as he said he was, and that the
new witness cite him put Stephen close to home and that something must have happened
to him after four pm. They also said during their search of the Clark's
home and garden, they didn't find any evidence or remains, but they did
find an area of interest they didn't elaborate on this, and the Clarks said
they didn't know what they could be talking about. The police also stated that
the anonymous letter implicated Stephen's parents and therefore supported their hypothesis at the time.
This, of course, was later less credible when the author came forward.
While there was no further action on Stephen's parents, the police did stress that
they believed that some harm has come to Stephen, as there is no proof
of life since he disappeared, and they are treating his case as a suspected
murder. This is where Stephen's case stands at the beginning of twenty twenty three.
While Stephen's parents have been removed as suspects in his murder, he still
hasn't been found and the police believe that he has come to some harm.
Stephen's family have not only had to deal with the missing person investigation and living
without him for thirty years, but in recent times they have also had to
deal with the stress and strain of being suspected in his murder. This has
put huge pressure on them as a family. Stephen's sister Victoria stated in an
article at the end of last month. The police portrayed us as a violent
family. They were determined to put a slur on us. Stephen going missing
has been a living nightmare for all of us. At the time when Stephen
went missing, the police did very little to support us, to put us
through this trauma instead of focusing on finding Stephen. Has been extremely damaging and
a total misuse of resource. Our relationship as a family was love filled.
Stephen and I couldn't have wished for a happier childhood. Victoria added how difficult
it was when Stephen first went missing and how this hasn't improved with time.
Added. In the early days, there was always one of us in the
house whilst other family members were searching. I had never seen my dad cry
until that moment. It was an emotional time and so difficult to feel so
helpless. We felt desperation. Even years later, I'm constantly looking in crowds.
I was driving a couple of months ago when I saw a man walking
with a limp. I took a double take and burst into tears. The
grief can come out of nowhere, even when you're least expecting it. Special
holidays were especially difficult for the family. We didn't celebrate Christmas for about eight
years, no decorations, no joy. It just felt wrong without Stephen being
there. Someone somewhere must know something. Any small detail, even if you
think it's insignificant, could prove to be an important lead. Dealing with ambiguous
loss is a life sentence. Constant, painful limbo of not knowing is a
horrible thing to live with. We still hope that he will walk through the
door one day, but we appreciate that as each year passes, it becomes
more and more unlikely. We just want to know what happened. The family
wants to relaunch the appeal to find Stephen, and it's evident what his disappearance
and the subsequent investigation did to Charles and Doris and the rest of the Clark
family. They are working with the charity Missing People to relaunch the appeal into
Stephen's disappearance and hope that they will find out something that can help them locate
him. Cleveland Police made a statement saying we currently have no active lines of
inquiry on this case. However, we will always continue to respond to intelligence
and information which may help us to locate Stephen. If people do have information,
no matter how insignificant it may seem, then I would urge them to
contact police one oh one, our contact independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously at crimestoppers dash
UK dot org or call eight hundred five five five one one one. If
you know anything about the disappearance of Stephen Clark in nineteen ninety two, then
please come forward, do the right thing and help his family. There is
very little to suggest what really did happen that Monday afternoon. Did Stephen walk
away from the beach and get into an accident? Was he approached by someone
that wanted to do him harm? We simply don't know, but it may
only take one person with a small piece of information to solve it. So
if you do know anything, please come forward. I will link all the
information in the show notes, including Steven's Missing People profile. Thank you for
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that wherever you listen, and in the show notes. As always, I'm
Caprice and this has been unseen